Brossart and Sayre have a long-running relationship.  We have scrimmaged them on an annual basis, and this will be our third regular season encounter, with each of us owning a victory over the other.  Brossart defeated the Spartans 21-3 here at the MAC in 2019, and dropped a two-day split-session event requiring two trips to Lexington in 2020 by a 20-13 score.

A year ago, the Mustangs traveled to Lexington for our annual scrimmage, having no clue that we were facing the future 2024 Class 1A State Champions, despite coming off of a 12-1 record in 2023, with only a loss to Raceland in the State Quarterfinals  on their dance card.  The Spartans were farther advanced than our Mustangs that night, and sent our guys home to practice and get better.  Meanwhile the Spartans ran the table, going 15-0 and defeated Raceland in the State Championship game to earn the title. 

The Spartans have suffered the loss of three blue-chip starters from last year’s squad with each earning a college football scholarship.  Luke Pennington, their quarterback threw for 2,938 yards and 53 touchdowns, landing him a scholly to Dayton University.  Charlie Slaughbaugh, a defensive whiz, is now playing at Columbia, and Brock Coffman, who wreaked havoc on us during last year’s scrimmage ran for 1,530 yards and scored 27 TDs.  He is now a Louisville Cardinal. 

While they suffered major losses, their cupboard is not bare.  Luke’s younger brother, Junior  Gage Pennington, is now the quarterback who was 16 of 23 for 147 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 31-28 loss to Kentucky Country Day a week ago.  Rice Gannon was their backup Place Kicker a year ago, but managed 31 of 33 successful PATs as Carson Graves (47-55) understudy.  Graves and Brossart’s Max Runge were the top two place-kickers in Class 1A a year ago. 

The Spartans will come to Alexandria stinging from the loss to KCD, and will not be expecting to return to Lexington late Friday night at 0-2.  While our Mustangs will have to put on their Big Boy pants, this is a challenge to see  if we can compete with a top-shelf Class 1A program. 

Game time is 7:30pm with the live broadcast with Brian and Joe firing up at 6:40pm.